I run 3.5 homebrew, if that interests you. This is just a checklist I use to determine what type of game to run for my players. The Monty Hall quotes are actual things said at the gaming table over the years. Player Preferences Combat Frequency Limited: Minimal combat encounters, just what’s needed to resolve the conflicts involved in the story. No unrelated or random combat encounter. Casual: Story based combat encounters, with logical side encounters, and minimal random encounters. Adventurer: Combat driven story encounters, with logical side encounters, and common random encounters. Radical: Combat driven story encounters, with many side encounters, and frequent random encounters. Monty Hall: “Why is there a dragon’s lair 150 feet from the main trade route?” No answer provided. “I roll initiative.” Combat Style Tactical: Encounters are designed to test your knowledge of game mechanics, strategy, and movement. Failure to excel in these things means death for your character. Advanced: Encounters are designed to exploit mechanics, strategy, movement. Failure to overcome these challenges results in losses for your character. Adventure: Encounters designed to challenge mechanics, strategy, and movement. Failure to overcome these challenges results in tougher encounters and diminished rewards. Radical: Encounters designed to challenge your ability to give and receive damage. Failure to maximize armour class, hit points and damage potential results in the party laughing at how useless you were in that last fight. Monty Hall: “89 points from one hit? Ouch! I power attack for 20.” Story Significance Story Driven: Encounters are designed around detailed plots and conflicts. Key details could mean the difference between life or death. Important Plot: Encounters are designed with plot details in mind. Key details could mean the difference between winning and losing. Adventurer: Encounters are designed with some plot detail in mind. Key details could provide shortcuts and tricks to defeating foes. Unimportant: Encounters are designed with minor plot details in mind. Key details could provide an advantage in defeating foes. Irrelevant: “I’m sorry, did you say 400 ogres come over the hill?” Bingo chips slip onto the game map. “I cast divine power and righteous might before they close the distance.” Story Type Steeped in Intrigue: Encounters are designed around trying to figure out who is the enemy in a tangled web of lies. Scandalous: Encounters are designed around shifting political loyalties and uncertain motives. Enemies in these this encounter may not show their faces or may not be obvious. Adventurer: Encounters are designed around mysteries and strange events. Untangling these stories will provide much-needed information. Limited Mystery: Encounters are designed around odd occurrence and unlikely events. Discovering the cause of these events may help resolve them. Monty Hall: “Does it have loot and/or large bags of xp?” Treasure Importance Unimportant: Loot is minimal. Magic items are sparse. Surviving as an adventurer is a tough life forced on you by circumstance. Casual: Loot is reasonable. Magic items are rare. Surviving as an adventurer is an easy life albeit a dangerous one. It’s probably the best paying occupation for the individual’s skills. Adventurer: Loot is free flowing. Magic items are uncommon. The lifestyle of an adventurer is luxurious and envied by most although skill dangerous. It’s the best paying occupation for the individual’s skills. Extravagant: Loot is abundant. Magic items are common. The lifestyle of an adventurer is luxurious almost from day one. Adventurers are everywhere, vying for quests and treasure maps. It’s such a great occupation that anyone with armour and a weapon claims to be an adventurer. Unfortunately, the danger level remains, leading to many unskilled adventurers being dinner for trolls. Monty Hall: “I start opening the portable holes then I get out the shovels.” Game Pace Relaxed: Unless the plot demands it, the game moves slowly from one event to the next. Emphasis is placed on resolving conflicts and moving the story forward. Adventures and quests are spaced out with plenty of down time for research and training in between. Combat encounters rarely (1%) happen between adventures. Easy Going: The game is always moving forward but events are still spaced out. There may be time for training and research but you never know what might come up next week. If an opportunity comes up, you might not want to turn it down as it may be a while before the next knock on the door comes. Combat encounter can happen at any time but seldom (10%) do. Adventurer: The game moves forward quickly with overlapping events, adventures, or quests. Even during down times, adventure is never far off. Combat encounters are uncommon (30%) but present a much more significant risk. Radical: The game moves forward at a dizzying pace. There is constantly something that needs to be dealt with and never enough time to get to it all. Lackeys are sent to deal with the lesser issue while the party prioritizes their conflicts. Monty Hall: “FIRST we deal with the tarasque, then we’ll go after the dragons, and we can send our cohorts to deal with the hobgoblin army closing to the east.” Advancement Relaxed: Leveling is a moderately rare occurrence. Most significant NPCs will level once per year depending on the events of the game. In game time, you can expect about this rate of advancement through levels. Easy Going: Leveling is more common. Players can expect to level several times in a year of the game depending on the events of the game. Adventurer: Leveling is common. Players can expect to level each month of game time depending on the events of the game. Radical: Leveling is very common. Players can expect to level each week of game time depending on the events of the game. Monty Hall: “YES! I killed it! Did we level?” Game Play Tone Serious: We play the game and only the game. No dick jokes. No puns. No out of character comments. This is D&D not kindergarten. Easy Going: We play the game with a serious tone but no one complains if someone drops out of character to mention the score of the last hockey game or to make a perfectly timed pun. Entertainment: We play the game for the fun of playing. Our enjoyment takes president over the tone of the game. Radical: We play the game as a backdrop for hanging out and having a good time. Some sessions may be dominated by old stories or current events depending on how everyone feels each time we get together. Monty Hall: “I chuck my greataxe at a pregnant Gnoll. SO MUCH PLACENTA!” Metagaming Tone Serious: Nothing about the game world is known beyond what you have experienced in the game. The party is formed organically and comes together without consulting each other about races, classes, skills, or feats. Easy Going: Everyone tries to remember not to use real world knowledge or make decisions based on what page the Monster Manual is open to currently. The party comes together semi organically with an overriding theme. Entertainment: Everyone tries to keep it out of the game but we don’t care that much unless it spoils someone’s enjoyment. The party comes together with a theme to provide player cohesion and make the game move forward in a logical sense. Radical: No one really tries to keep metagaming out and no one really cares. The party is manufactured to be as cohesive as possible and fill all the roles they can. Monty Hall: “I’m not sure. Can I roll a knowledge (metagaming) check?”
